Google Images has been kind, FUBAR v.2 cover, stats and more!

- Blogger is kind enough to save viewing statistics for this blog, and I am obsessive enough to check them all the time; the stats tell me nothing other than how many views specific posts have in a given time period and what countries the views come from, which is juuuust unintrusive enough for me to be okay with.  These page views, for the most part, seem to follow a predictable trend, with new posts getting the majority share (but fading away after a week or so) with a few time-tested posts continually getting hits.  Sometimes, though, a post from three months ago will all of a sudden pop back up on the radar and top the list in a given week.  This is thoroughly confusing.

Case in point: I've had, what, seven different posts with art from my Thing sketchbook; one entry (the third, I think?) keeps getting more hits than any other.  I think the big reason for this is because, as someone else pointed out to me, some of the sketches show up pretty early on in Google Images searches, which I think is extra cool.  The wording is sometimes tricky, but I've found that searching for images of the Thing with the keyword "cigar" somewhere in there brings a bundle of familiar sketches, like the one above from Chuck BB.  I've seen images from the sketchbook as high as on the sixth page of results, which, when considering how many thousands of images of the Thing there are out there, is fairly surprising.

- Speaking of statistics (YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECT!), the month of June still has a few days left in it, and it already is my most-viewed month since Blogger started keeping record of such things (according to this graph, it looks like a total of zero people viewed it in May of 2009).  November, 2010, directly after the New York Comic Con, held the previous high, but woo!  No more.  Thanks, everyone, for reading my stupid ramblings!

- One of the big reasons for this jump is because of the "Accordion Theory" comic strip, which has quickly become one of my most-viewed posts.  It seems that Yahoo! Images is bringing the strip up very early when people search for "Weird Al" Yankovic, which is great - especially since the man is getting a lot of publicity lately for his brand new album, "Alpocalypse", which came out on Tuesday.  It's a tremendous album, and you should totally buy several copies of it.  My goodness, look at the cover!

And holy crap, buy it buy it buy it!  And marvel and how incredible it is.

- You know what other cover is cool?  The just-released cover to the much-anticipated FUBAR volume 2, due out this fall.  Danilo Beyruth drew this one just as he did the cover for volume 1, and as with that one he knocked this out of the park.  Really, how awesome is this cover?  Very awesome.  That's the answer.  It is.

- Your friend (and mine) Paul Tucker is hard at work on a new story featuring John Watkins, Phantom for Hire!  Here's some thumbnails...see if you can guess what's happening!  I can, but...I wrote the script.

- Lastly, happy birthday to friend and Franks and Beans co-creator Larry, whose exact date of birth I always manage to forget, but hey, it's around here some time.  I hope he enjoys the Dukes of Hazzard parody porno DVD that I bought for him, which is sure to bring laughs and laughs.  And boobs.

Oh, hey, we (and I think eight other people) went to Kennywood amusement park last week, and I filmed the Thunderbolt roller coaster while riding it.  Watch it, and hold your hands up when the car goes down the hill.

Thing sketchbook, part 3

It's time for more Thing sketches...because I said so.  I did!  I just said it.  This is a fantastic bunch, with what might just be my favorite related story.  I imagine which one I mean will be obvious.  Take a look!

Erik Larsen - Wizard World Los Angeles 2005

This is apparently Erik Larsen's stock Thing image, as people have told me they've seen it before when they look at the book.  It's fantastic either way.

Chuck B.B. - Wizard World Los Angeles 2004

Most people draw the Thing smoking a cigar, which was the norm in the 1960s and '70s.  A cigarette doesn't really have the same effect.

Talent Caldwell - Pittsburgh Comicon 2005

This was the most awkward sketch in the book.  Talent Caldwell had a sign on his table that read "I will not sketch Supergirl."  I asked him why, and he said "because I hate drawing Supergirl."

I gave him my book and he made it look like it was the most painful thing he'd ever done.  He stopped several times and shook his hand like it was cramped (who knows, maybe it was) and would make "aagh" noises under his breath.

To break the silence of me just standing over him watching him draw, I said "your art reminds me a lot of Michael Turner's", at which he took offense.  He said "it doesn't look anything like his!", but here's the thing: he studied under Turner, worked in his studio, and would do backgrounds for him.  Anyone who's seen their art side by side has to admit that there's at least a resemblance.  But he would have none of it.

As he was drawing, a handful of people gathered around, each getting his or her sketchbook out in anticipation.  When he was done, I took the book back from Talent back and thanked him.  He shouted out "twenty dollars!!", at which point, everyone else put their sketchbooks away.  I handed him the Andrew Jackson (or the equivalent thereof) and he said "I probably should have told you that before I started drawing."

Weird.

Also, a friend of mine was with me in line, and after a while he started recounting a story told earlier about Caldwell by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner.

Apparently they had all gone out the night before and had some drinks, so Jimmy and Amanda started referring to him as "Wasted Talent", etc. My friend started to recall this and was being WAY too loud about some of the nicknames, which Caldwell obviously heard and, as he was uncomfortable with it, started shifting listlessly in his seat as he was drawing.

I had no idea what to do while all this was going on, so I just stared at the ceiling.

Darryl Banks - Pittsburgh Comicon 2005

Darryl Banks might be best known for co-creating the Kyle Rayner version of Green Lantern.  In 2005 he had been out of comics for a little while, but was looking to break back in with a Cloak and Dagger pitch.  The writer at the table with him wanted everyone to sign a petition to send to Marvel saying that they should be allowed to produce the book (which seemed like an odd way to go about things).

The writer went into his pitch on what he would do with the characters.  "Most people don't know how to write teenagers," he said, "but I do!!  I've lived it!"  He was very adamant about that fact.

I asked Darryl why he incorporated the dollar sign into his signature, as he had started doing about half way into his Green Lantern run.  "It's when I starting making lots of money", he said.

Casey Jones - Pittsburgh Comicon 2005

How does someone get a name like Casey Jones?  In any case, he's one of the nicest creators I've met, and draws the Thing with two eyebrows as opposed to the Kirby-esque unibrow.  He drew a couple fill in issues of the FF in '04 or '05, and I've since become a big fan.

Plenty more to come!